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A whopping 46% of consumers tell us they are more likely to try new brands than they were five years ago; a clear signal to a trend we should expect to intensify. Yet we see few signs that adjustments have been made to marketing initiatives or innovation pipelines to match these numbers.

Consumer spending in the grocery sector continues to slow, with sales declining to -1.6% in the most recent four weeks, in the context of the 2018 bumper spring, this spring has been tougher for supermarkets.

TV remains the largest UK advertising channel for automotive brands, with a 6% rise in advertising spend in the 52 weeks to end of February 2019 in comparison to the previous year. However, cinema experienced the largest uplift, with a 14% increase in spend to £31m from £27m in the previous year.

My experience with the orange pack of biscuits is typical of how shoppers interact with product packs. Packs catch the shopper’s attention at the “Zeroth moment of truth”—when the shopper is in front of a screen. They then catch the shopper’s attention in front of the shelf—that’s the “first moment of truth”—where most purchase decisions are made.

By placing the shopper at the center of decision making, manufacturers can better collaborate with their retailer partners to address the inefficiencies of trade spend—one of the largest costs of doing business.

Nielsen Ad Intel data shows that over the last five years, there has been a significant reduction in the number of advertisers in the top five advertising categories. In Entertainment & Leisure, advertisers have dropped from 28k to 18k; Finance from 6k to 5k; Food from 2k to 1k; Auto down from 7k to 6k; and Travel & Transport from 9k to 6k.

There are many ways to create a community of beauty consumers that are loyal to retailers and brands. But don’t be overwhelmed: It’s not too late to join the conversation with your beauty consumers—they’re listening, and they’re more than happy to connect directly with you to provide their feedback.

Consumers today are more disloyal than ever before; the once steadfast consumer retail environment primed to grow brand-loyal hearts has shifted to a more capricious climate, where product infidelity is now the norm.

With so many DMP vendors fighting to stand out, it’s no surprise that many marketers aren’t able to truly differentiate the competing solutions. And to be fair, from an eagle’s eye view, I don’t know that there is a way to.

Digital adoption is sweeping the globe. The uptake of mobile devices and increasing access to the internet have huge ramifications for businesses in all industries. Retailers can’t afford to ignore this new reality.

As we analyze key takeaways from Nielsen’s past two years of sponsorship valuation data and research around fan behavior and preferences, it’s evident that esports stakeholders have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.

Some companies take the world's long-term sustainability to heart and build their entire brands around it. But even if your company isn’t ready to dive into the deep end of sustainability, it’s important to take steps in the right direction.

As companies look to break into new markets, they must understand that each market demands its own approach. In burgeoning sustainability markets, however, natural and organic are paving the way for more detailed and specific claims.

Choosing the right marketing mix modeling vendor has a huge impact on your overall marketing effectiveness and business growth. To help you avoid regretting your decision, get the answers to these five questions before taking the plunge.

Modern marketers have a number of tools to drive growth in the competitive environment which are supported by data to make confident decisions—like pricing, promotion, assortment and media. But when we talk to marketers about growth, no lever is cited more often than innovation.

It’s rational that shoppers would be willing to pay more for a product that is of a higher demonstrated quality or value, but there is also a more subjective component that factors into many shoppers’ ideas of what premium means.

Christmas is an important time of year for the alcohol industry in the U.K., as off-trade alcohol sales over the 12 weeks of Christmas account for around a sixth of all Christmas fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales and a third of total annual off-trade alcohol sales.

Sales momentum remains weak across the grocery industry, with headline growth of +2.3% over the last four weeks, according to data released by Nielsen. However, despite the slow start to Christmas spending, we predict that grocery shoppers will spend £7 billion in the crucial two week period (ending 29th December).

As manufacturers and retailers seek to capitalize on the opportunity of e-commerce, they need to understand consumers’ online usage, behaviour and habits, as well as what’s driving e-commerce adoption.

In today’s crowded car market, auto advertisers are hard-pressed to connect with consumers, encourage new sales, and do it all under shrinking budgets. It’s a steep challenge, and one that can only be met with a full understanding of how consumers shop for cars and how they react to automotive advertising.

Marketers often think about how important it is to communicate all of a product’s key benefits to their consumers directly on the pack—using images, colors, logos, words, typography, etc. But very often, this overload of information makes the design extremely complex and difficult to understand.

For many large, multinational global brands, other companies don’t become competition until they’re operating at the same scale and in similar markets. As a result, global companies often don’t pay much attention to the small brands that operate well outside of their global peripheral vision.

During the five weeks of the competition, French retailers (hypermarkets, supermarkets, drives, convenience and discounters) generated €211 million more1 in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) than during the same period in 2017 (ia +2.1% increase).

Aligning your organization toward common goals is challenging, especially when the goals change. That’s because it’s common for marketing teams to operate in silos. Most marketing organizations are split between marketing and media, and the split is compounded by multiple layers up and down the org chart.

If you can’t see it, it must not be there, right? In the FMCG market, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. That’s because every category has a certain concentration of brands that aren’t top of mind for many, but they have the ability to shift the overall landscape if conditions are right.

There has never been a more dynamic and challenging time to be a marketer. Since the advent of the internet, fueled by available high-speed access and ignited by the proliferation of powerful new devices, marketers have more access to consumers than ever before.

Regardless of whether you call it football or soccer, it’s a sport with massive global appeal and fan interest. In fact, more than 40% of people 16 or older in major population centers around the world consider themselves interested or very interested in following football, more so than any other sport.

The DMP serves as the nervous system for your organization’s digital ecosystem helping you unify, make sense of and unlock the value of disparate streams of data, uncover and build valuable consumer audiences, and reach those high-value audiences with personalized messaging in real-time across the digital ad ecosystem.

Today, access to information is unprecedented, consumers are empowered to make smarter buying decisions and marketers have amassed immense quantities of data about consumers. Technology has transformed many industries permanently, but perhaps none as much as marketing.

We expect lifestyle, the “little and often” trend, technology and location to be four of the key influencers on shopper’s behaviour in 2018, which, if executed well, will be true foot traffic drivers for c-store retailers.

With digital now a critical channel for brands, it’s no surprise that they’re actively looking to better understand and measure returns in the space. They’re also actively looking to social media and sponsorships as a way to amplify their digital returns.

Now in place, the minimum pricing of alcohol regulation in Scotland means that a single unit of alcohol cannot be sold for less than 50p. And as a result, the stronger the drink, the more expensive it will be. So what effect might that have on consumption?

When it comes to growth, it’s hard to ignore what we’re seeing in emerging markets. In fact, they’re currently generating two-to four-times the FMCG growth of developed markets. But just because the big picture boasts big opportunity doesn’t mean capitalizing on the right opportunities is easy.

At the halfway point of the 2017-2018 season, the team uniform providers of the top 40 football clubs in Europe had received more than 80 billion social media impressions, providing $70.6 million in QI media value.

More than any other consumer industry, beauty and personal care are driven by trends. New trending ingredients, formulations, colors and brands come around every season. Walk into your average retail store and you’ll see this reflected on shelves.

While sales of fast-moving consumer goods in some traditionally successful markets like the U.S. saw signs of softness in early 2017, opportunities for growth are still readily available if you know where to look.

Five years ago, mainstream alcohol segments drove the majority of the alcohol sales growth in New Zealand. More recently, niche products have emerged, and Kiwis are increasingly opting for more premium and unique beverage offerings.

Compared with the everyday consumer products we buy frequently, like paper towels and boxed cereal, durables have a much longer shelf life. Items like electric razors, coffee makers and irons fall into this category, and they play key roles in the everyday lives of consumers—yet in much different ways than fast-moving consumer goods do.

What do dental chews for pets, adult incontinence undergarments and sweetened light beer have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. A closer look, however, reveals that each solved a specific "job to be done."

The esports industry is growing quickly, with new leagues, teams and distribution channels. And this growth is attracting new high-profile esports investment from brands, media organizations and traditional sports rightsholders.

The “input button,” an often misunderstood piece of remote control real estate, unlocks a wide range of content for consumers with an array of devices, and it’s no longer invisible to audience measurement.

The world is changing. Fast. The way we work. The way we travel. The way we watch videos and shows. The way we simply interact with each other. And because the pace of change is happening so incredibly fast, it can be hard to understand what, and just how much, change has happened over a week, month or year.

As marketers seek greater accountability in today’s increasingly omnichannel shopper landscape, demand for outcome-based ROI measurement has become more important than ever across the media, retail and FMCG industries.

When identifying how valuable sponsorships and brand activation can be in esports, it’s worth exploring the issue from the perspectives of the many stakeholders involved: leagues, franchisees and teams.

Neuroscience shows us that, when used correctly, music can put viewers and listeners in a more positive mood, leading to a greater reliance on intuition and a reduction in both critical thought and focus on detail.

Thanks to globalization and connectivity, consumers around the world have access to a wider array of products than ever. So how much weight does the “made in” moniker carry when it comes to purchase motivation?

We’ve been talking about health and wellness for years. There are two critical forces at play that are shifting this topic from niche to mainstream: increasingly complex needs and massive digital engagement.

This year, a range of ad execs have said digital advertising is broken and in need of repair. While they’re right to insist for better performance, their focus has been on surface issues related to the ad experience, while a larger problem lies beneath.

Global FMCG retail is pegged at $4 trillion today, growing at a rate of just 4%, with signs of continuing sluggish performance in developed markets. On the other hand, total retail e-commerce is predicted to grow by 20% (combined annual growth rate) to become a $4 trillion market by 2020.

We’ve gotten used to emphasizing the divide between digital and physical, but it’s quickly disappearing: when digital data about the physical world is comprehensive, real-time and freely available, the physical and digital augment each other.

When testing innovations, it’s risky to ask consumers to compare a new concept against an actual product that they currently purchase. This unbalances the entire evaluation by setting up an unfair comparison.

Backed by improving global consumer confidence, many regions are seeing improved conditions for businesses and the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Here, we’ll look at trends in a few select countries.

With the advancements in big data, advertisers know more about consumers than ever before. And yet, they’re still challenged with how to drive the greatest return for their marketing budgets. And we all know what happens when executives don’t see the ROI they’re expecting—they cut budgets.

FMCG success today is now dependent on quality product images, solid SEO and prominent placement on e-tailer websites—far more so than simply having an abundant quantity or variety on the shelf at the local store.

As one of the world’s most well known bicycle races kicks off this weekend, a recent study by Nielsen Sports has tracked the growing interest of cycling around the world, most notably in the Asian region.

While unexpected by many, the Amazon-Whole Foods linkage highlights just how profoundly consumer expectations are changing with regard to food and beverage shopping—and will continue to do so moving forward.

Unbeknownst to most consumers, tremendous thought goes into developing even the most commonplace products. As a result, product development in the FMCG industry is anything but fast-moving. But what if algorithms could help streamline the process and the outcomes?

Global sports are thriving, but media consumption is changing before our eyes. And as the media world grapples with these issues, so too must the sports industry. But these challenges aren’t the only obstacles facing the sports realm.

Measuring an ad’s ability to communicate trust is a tricky business: perceptions of trust can be non-conscious, formed almost immediately and biased by subtle factors. Given these nuances, explicit research methods aren’t sufficient.

As retailers ramp up their health and wellness offerings, and the lines between channels blurs, it’s interesting to think about the role that drug stores will play in an increasingly crowded, wellness-oriented marketplace.

The quest for the coveted green jacket is on, as the best golfers from around the world head to Augusta, Ga., to compete in the Masters tournament. But it’s not just the players vying for exposure during the historic tourney: companies are eager to cash in as well.

How many things can you say for certain that you're paying attention to, or even seeing, at any given moment? Our brains just aren’t good at recalling the kinds of details marketers need to evaluate their efforts in a complex world. That’s where the right neuroscience tools can help.

Nielsen Sports’ latest 2018 FIFA World Cup Tracking Study shows that 94% of Russians are aware of the FIFA World Cup, with three-fourths saying they’re excited about the prospect of hosting the tournament.

In addition to being hyper connected and digitally driven, Millennials are focused on personal experiences. And for many, those experiences happen away from home. Notably, Millennials are very interested in travel. In fact, they travel more than any other generation, including Baby Boomers.

The premium sector is growing globally, and as it turns out, it isn’t ritzy categories like diamonds and champagne that are topping the charts. Rather, global consumers are most often willing to trade up for everyday consumables.

In the coming decades, machine learning will transform work as we know it. And unlike previous revolutions, which primarily affected blue-collar workers, the smart machine revolution has white-collar workers in its sights.

Around the world, consumers are looking for a taste of the good life. And it’s not just those who are wealthy. Sales of products in the “premium” tier are growing at a rapid pace. In fact, the growth of the premium sector in many markets is outpacing total growth for many fast-moving consumer goods categories.

Consumers are faced with a dizzying array of retailers vying for their attention, and a retail loyalty program can be a determining factor for where they decide to shop. In fact, 72% of global respondents agree that, all other factors equal, they’ll buy from a retailer with a loyalty program over one without.

Most new product launches are “small” or “sustaining” innovations, which include the many, many brand extensions that large companies launch year after year. These launches are absolutely essential for growing existing brands and defending shelf space.

Retail players have long believed that large-format stores will eventually take over the landscape, but today’s reality disproves the “bigger is always better” myth. Although large stores still account for 51% of global sales, smaller channels are growing sales up to eight times as fast their larger counterparts.

Most of the customer data companies gather about innovation is structured to show correlations rather than causations. Yet after decades of watching great companies do poorly at innovation, we’ve come to the conclusion that the focus on correlation is taking firms in the wrong direction.

What causes a consumer to pull a product into their lives? Simply put, we bring a product into our lives because it meets a need or desire. That’s the crux of Jobs Theory: doing a job that needs to be done.

Grabbing a bite to eat outside of the house is a weekly occurrence for almost half of global respondents, but are we stopping to savor our entrees or eating grub on the go? As it turns out, we’re doing quite a bit of both.

We’ve become so accustomed to our fast-paced lifestyles that it’s even crept its way into how we consume food. This is especially the case when you look at breakfast. So what does the future of the most important meal of the day look like?

While today’s consumers certainly scrutinize the foods that fill their pantries, they aren’t just eating at home. In fact, eating out isn’t just for special occasions; it’s a way of life for nearly half of global respondents.

Brands armed with new products have always rushed to be first to market, as first movers often establish a stronghold that can be difficult for later entrants to break into. But being “first mover” at the expense of being “best mover” can often lead brands to competitive disadvantage.

The ins-and-outs of what a healthy diet looks like may vary somewhat around the world, but simplicity resonates globally. While there is some variation across regions, the story stays the same: Artificial is out, many of us avoid food with long lists of ingredients and consumers are intent on removing the bad and adding the good.